Six students from each of the academic colleges at SF State were named hood recipient for undergraduates, two of which will speak at the commencement ceremony Sat, May 24.
To be chosen as a hood recipient, an outstanding student with a unique story and an ambitious plan for the future, the Office of the President sends out a list of GPAs of the students in each department that are eligible.
According to Dotti Ross, assistant to Associate Dean Amy Sueyoshi, the chairs of each department meet and discuss the potential hood recipients.
“We had 10 honorees in the College of Business, including economics and labor studies, and then the department chair and deans vote on those 10 students for the hood recipient,” Kathleen O’Donnell, associate dean in the College of Business said. The marketing department selected Anvari as the student representative.
Dana Anvari is getting her BA in business administration with an emphasis in marketing and is one of the students speaking at the ceremony. Anvari was chosen as the hood recipient for the College of Business after getting a second chance to continue her education.
According to Anvari, Associate Professor of marketing Mahmood Hussain nominated her as the department honoree because she left a lasting impression on him during one of his classes. Eventually faculty members let Anvari know she was one of the hood recipients and the University asked her to speak at the commencement ceremony.
Anvari was born in Iran but her family moved to England when she was just one year old in 1984, where her father got his PhD. They eventually moved to the Bay Area in the 1990s.
“I think the hardest aspect for them was having a daughter that spoke up a lot, spoke her mind (and) asked a lot of questions,” Anvari said.
Anvari didn’t have much direction after completing high school, but a long-term job at a bank offered to pay for some of her education. This gift gave her the opportunity to return to school.
“Honestly I would be a fool if I didn’t take that opportunity to go back to school,” Anvari said.
Given the opportunity to continue her education, Anvari took a few classes at the Diablo Valley Community College. There she discovered her path in business and marketing after seeing that her creative background and ability to think out of the box were skills that consumers wanted.
“I think that is really important to marketers because they didn’t consider their consumer base,” Anvari said.
Anvari’s primary goal at SF State was proving to herself that she could get her BA. For Anvari, all the sacrifices she had made and all the all-nighters she pulled were worth it because they made her stronger and taught her that if she really wanted something, then she would have to figure how to get to that point.
Anvari hopes to eventually become a CEO at a marketing company after completing graduate school. “I want to work for a company that is influential (because) in 15 years I want to retire and buy a little boat, have a nice little cocktail in in my hand, and then come back and teach,” said Anvari.
